Ill 



THE BLACKMOOR VALE 



SALISBURY PLAIN is no place for the small holder; 

 with the extension of the military camps a few will 

 find footing in the adjacent valleys, but in the main 

 the chalk country is the home of the capitalist farmer. 

 When the depth of the soil can be measured in inches 

 the farming must be based upon sheep, and no small 

 farm can pay its way with sheep ; holdings of 50 or 

 even 100 acres on the Downs must mean a very low 

 standard of living for the occupiers and poor yields 

 from the land. At present the land is not perhaps 

 producing its maximum, and without doubt in places 

 game is too abundant and is taking too great a toll 

 of the crops ; but the better prices that are prevailing 

 will allow of increased expenditure at a profit, and 

 we may expect to see all the land more intensively 

 farmed. But if the country population is to be raised 

 it must be by the return of the rural industries, for 

 the progress both of farming and of the agricultural 

 labourer is bound up with a reduction in the number 

 accompanied by an increase in the efficiency and pay 

 of the staff required for a given acreage, unless the 

 circumstances permit of an entire revolution in the 

 style of farming, as when milk production can be ex- 

 changed for fruit-growing. 



But from Warminster westwards we ran into a 



small-holder's country ; as far as Wincanton our road 



15 



